Effort to Create Hope for ‘Lost Generation’: Perspectives of Turkish EFL Teachers

Abstract

Millions of refugees have recently migrated to Turkey with the start of the crisis in their countries. As educationis one of the most crucial factors shaping the future of these refugees, studies are needed in thisrespect to reflect their current needs and problems in the host countries. From this point of view, this paperaimed to explore the views of Turkish EFL teachers working with refugee students in public schools invarious parts of Turkey. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews conducted with 10 EFLteachers. The relationships of refugee students with host country students, the problems they encounteredwhile learning English, their basic needs in English classes, and potential suggestions of EFL teachers forrefugee students’ English language learning were among the issues addressed in the interviews. Fourcategories and their sub-categories were found out as a result of the analysis. The findings indicated severalproblems both refugee students and their English teachers faced in English classes in public schools.The findings also included the teachers’ suggestions with regard to materials used in the classes, suitablecounselling for refugee students, employment of Syrian English teachers, and many other topics. Finally,implications drawn from the findings with the aim of easing the language learning process of refugee studentsin public schools and some suggestions for further research were provided.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.sal.0.31.19078